The Mysterious Case of the Mysterious Case
by WholeMilk
Summary: Butch tells T.J. and the gang the truth about one of 3rd Street's greatest legends.
1. Chapter 1

"…all she asked was where they were going," Butch let this final sentence rest like some horrid pie on the windowsill of a haunted house.

"That's it?" Mikey eventually croaked, fearfully. Butch removed the toothpick from his mouth before he answered

"She didn't have to say nothin' else. She knew she'd made a mistake too big to come back from."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably.

"Man, that's the worst story about getting braces that I've ever heard," Vince said, finally snapping everyone out of their terror trances.

"That's what's out there for you kids," Butch said coldly wile scanning the playground with narrow eyes. "But it's not the worst thing you have to worry about."

"It's not?" Spinelli squeeked.

"Come on Butch, you can't dogpile nightmares onto us just for fun." T.J. said, mustering-up his leadership.

"If I wanted to scare you for the sake of scaring you I'd tell you about Jr. High gym class!" Butch verbally slapped back while leaning-in on T.J. "But that's only a matter of time for all of you — and not worth worrying about now. No, what I'm about to tell you is something you don't have to see, don't have to cross paths with."

Butch turned around and walked towards the playground fence. He stopped and stared up and away. The gang all looked at one another while they waited anxiously for Butch to continue.

"I like you Detweiler. I like all of you guys. So I hope you listen, really listen." Butch turned back around and held his finger to his mouth. "But I can't tell you here. Follow me — but don't look like you're following me."

Butch strolled off towards the trees along the far edge of the playground. T.J. led the gang on a bowed path, chatting about this and that, and keeping an eye on anyone keeping an eye on them. Shortly they joined Butch behind an old oak tree, they all sat down in the small clearing walled by large rhododendrons.

After checking over both shoulders, back towards the open playground, Butch finally began.

"Do you know where you are?" Butch asked.

"Third Street School!" Gus replied earnestly.

"I think he meant exactly where we are sitting right now," Gretchen kindly responded to Gus.

"Grundler's got it. Where you're sitting right nowis where it all began for him."

"For who?" Spinelli queried, her natural skepticism returning as her impatience grew.

Butch reached into his pocket for a fresh toothpick and placed it smoothly between two bottom teeth. He chuckled to himself.

"For who?" He asked rhetorically. "How about, for Jeff Shepard!"

The blood in everyone's vein instantly ran cold. Vince made a move as if he was going to get up and run away. T.J.'s hat suddenly felt too tight.

After an oppressive, adrenaline deaf thirty seconds Gus broke the silence.

"Who's Jeff Shepard?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Who's Jeff Shepard?" Butch answered Gus with a sly tone.

"Is he like Little Jimmy Cratner?" Gus put forward hopefully.

"Gus, Jeff Shepard is who Jimmy Cratner feels bad for," T.J. tried to answer with the appropriate level of both firmness and understanding.

*gulp* was Gus's only response.

"Jimmy Crater," Butch laughed softly. "Little Jimmy Crater came back. And he might've never left, if you ask some people."

"So, Jeff Shepard isn't like Little Jimmy Crater, got it. But will somebody please tell me who Jeff Shepard actually _is?!"_ Gus implored.

"That's exactly why I brought you here, where it all began — and ended — for Jeffrey M. Shepard: third grader, cub scout, son of Elise and David, switch kickball kicker, — and treasure hunter."

"Treasure hunter?!" Spinelli exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's right. Jeff had compiled a small fortune by the time he disappeared." Butch emphasized.

"Or was taken." Gretchen practically whispered.

"Hey Gretch, Jimmy Cratner is one thing, but are you telling me that you belief that there was a third grade treasure hunter who vanished under this oak tree and that it wasn't even on the news?!"

"Spinelli, I know that you're unaccustomed to me believing in such dime novel plots but this isn't the first time I've heard — or overheard — about this part of the Shepard story."

"I always heard that he ran away from home to join the circus and got eaten by the lion he was trying to tame." Vince added.

"My cousin told me that he his best friends brother got a letter from Jeff from the Alaskan Pipeline!" Mikey was enthused to contribute.

"It wasn't no lion, and he ain't at no pipeline. I can tell you how it went down — because I was there!" Butch hit the group with that detail like a fish on a market counter.

"OK Butch, you had us going. But thorns' way you were there! Jeff Shepard lived here before any of us were born!" TJ exclaimed while standing-up and dusting-off his jeans.

"It happened right here, on a cold autumn night, only seven years ago. I was four years old. I was in the backseat of my parents car. And what I saw through the remaining leaves, on these very trees, changed me more than anything in my life — save when I saw my brother kiss his girlfriend."

Everyone shuddered and a small breeze rose from the grassland beyond the shrubbery.

"Now settle back down and don't forget that for every adventure you have at this school, there is a misadventure waiting to take its place. For every triumph, there is a shadow tragedy waiting in the wings. For every T.J. Detweiler, there is the ghost Jeff Shepard. And there is a ghost of Jeff Shepard. Believe me."


	3. Chapter 3

Butch, in turn, settled-in; leaning against the strong oak, he reached for yet another fresh toothpick. Pointing behind the group, his gaze lengthened.

"Do you know what's just over there?" Butch queried.

"Yeah, the water tower." Spinelli answered.

"And the old Sanders house." Mikey added.

"My dentist, Dr. Goldman, lives there! He says that there's a secret wine cellar in the basement!" Gus offered enthusiastically.

"I'm not surprised," Butch spoke coolly. "Professor Sanders built that house himself. Supposedly it is a one quarter scale replica of a manor house that Sanders saw from a train when he was at Oxford."

"Professor Conrad Sanders, Rhode Scholar, 1899-1975, taught at Harvard University and Occidental College. Famed for his journeys in the Northern British Isles and his study of pre-Celtic Scotland." Gretchen read from her handheld computer, Galileo. "How was I unaware that our small town had such a famous academic as a resident?"

"Because Sanders kept a low profile. Some might even say that he was hiding — or was keeping watch over something he _had_ hidden."

"And that's what Jeff found?" TJ asked, beginning to believe.

"I don't know what Jeff found — but I know whatever it was, he wishes he hadn't. You see, for years, there were stories about the quirky, old professor who lived at the end of the one house street. About how he traded one parcel of his land to the town for the water tower to be built in exchange for something no one was quite sure about. Another piece of land? A private tunnel that connected to the main sewer drain for the town? Keys to the secret town bomb shelter?"

"Bomb shelter?!" Vince exclaimed.

"No one knew exactly. But what everyone did know is that Professor Sanders was as secretive as he was kind. He was known for buying whole counters of kids their milkshakes and ice cream at the old soda fountain. Yet, no one had ever been in his house. And it was such a beautiful house."

"It still is." Mikey ensured.

"That's right, it sure is. Hand-laid slate stone. Large library. After the professor passed away, and his nephew put the house on the market, nearly everyone in town went to the open house, just to finally see what was behind that large English oak door. My mother and grandmother went and said that they sure weren't disappointed." Butch pushed himself up and off of the tree and began to pace amongst the gang. "But there was a room upstairs, a room that Sander's nephew called the "private study" that no one was able to see. A large, old padlock made sure no one entered. My grandmother swears that when she walked-by that door she heard a whisper come from inside and felt a draft of cold air that gave her a chill."

"Jeez" Spinelli uttered without realizing it.

"'Jeez' is right. And what's more chilling is that when my grandmother told my grandfather about the locked door and her feeling, he told her that he wasn't surprised. He said that at his lodge he had heard, more than once, that Professor Sanders had come here to retire suddenly after his greatest discovery."

"What was it? The Holy Grail? The bones of a giant?" Gretchen pressed.

"No one knew. But somehow my grandfather was of the mind that the professor had taken it with him to keep anyone else from discovering it. My grandfather said it was something dark, something powerful, and that's why Ol' Sanders kept to himself. That's why you could see the light on in his study in the dead of night. He was always looking for a way to destroy it for once and all."

Another breeze rose-up — this time it was colder, sharper. TJ pulled his jacket close.

"But the professor never got the chance. He passed-away before he could."

"Wait a second — if no one knew anything about any of this — then how did people know any of this?!" Spinelli's skepticism returned with a vengeance.

"I said that no one back then was _sure_ about the details of Professor Sanders — but people in small towns find a way." Butch answered.

"Yeah, a way to make up rumors and pass them along." Vince laughed.

"And I'd have to agree with you Vince, except you didn't let me finish." Butch chided. "You see when the house was sold, most of the artifacts were donated to museums around the world, most of the valuable art was sold at estate sale, and the rest was gifted-out to a handful of people around town. Over time some of those items ended-up in antique shops in the area. And that is where young Jeff Shepard enters the story. A fateful trip to Woodman's Antiques, the purchase of a French lap writing desk, — and then the discovery of a hidden compartment."

"A hidden compartment!" TJ looked at Vince. "This is straight-out of a Barnaby Boys mystery!"

"A hidden compartment — and a diary. A diary that put Jeff on the trail to Professor Sander's greatest discovery — and Jeff's own disappearance."


End file.
